Parker (10 page)

She was getting to him, and—

He stood as Mike put a hand to the small of
Reba’s back, leaned in and whispered something in her ear, and led
her into the room. Parker cleared his throat and in three long
strides crossed the room to take his place at Reba’s side.

He looked at Mike. “I’ll take it from here.
Thanks, Mike. Ready to go, Reba?”

Reba rotated to meet Parker’s gaze and
nodded. Her eyes were twinkling. Had Mike put that twinkle there?
They weren’t like that earlier in the truck.

Well, he was going to have to do something
about that.

She said, “Yes, I’m ready. I know you have
things to do, Parker. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting for so
long.”

He tipped his head. “Not a problem,
Reba.”

She turned to Mike and laid a hand on his
forearm. “Thanks, Mike, for everything.”

Mike grinned and patted her hand. Parker
resisted rolling his eyes. Then Mike added, “Talk to you soon. I
have your number.”

Parker watched Reba grin back and the
way-too-long gaze that Mike held between them.
Sonofabitch!
He had already asked her out.

Anger pushed up inside him and settled in the
back of this throat. Tight. Not so much at Mike—well, a little
bit—but mostly at
himself
for having dragged his feet with
Reba the past few days. Well, he wasn’t going to drag them any
longer.

He took her by the elbow—her good one—and led
her
the hell
away from Mike Attaway.

****

Parker escorted her to his truck.

He rushed her out of the doctor’s office,
through the outer lobby, and into the parking lot with one hand on
her elbow, and another at her back. Good thing Dr. Cooper had
gotten rid of the splint. Parker unlocked and opened the
passenger-side door of his truck and gave her a hand up into the
cab of the four-wheel-drive vehicle. Before closing the door, he
said, “Wait here. I will be right back.”

Wait here? Where else?

Reba wasn’t going to let him get off with
that kind of behavior. “Parker McKenna. What in the hell is going
on with you?”

The door stopped short, in mid-closure.
“What?”

Reba angled back to face him. “Why in the
world are you so damn business-like and rude! What did I do? I know
I’ve been a pain in the ass and you’ve had to cart me everywhere
the past few days, and I’m really sorry about that, but you are
acting like an ass!”

The look on the man’s face was something akin
to
oh shit
and the proverbial deer-caught-in-the-headlight.
“An ass?”

“Yes! You are gruff and emotionless and
very…ass-like!”

His mouth opened, closed. Then opened again.
His head did a quick shake. “I’m sorry, Reba. Let me explain in a
minute. Right now I need to—”

“There’s Mike.” She looked past Parker’s
shoulder. “Looks like he wants one of us.”

“I’m pretty damned sure of that,” he
hissed.

“What? Parker, you are making no sense.”

“I’m making perfect sense.” He angled her
legs back into the cab. “Now wait here and we’ll talk in a few
minutes. I promise.” He placed a forefinger on her lips, silencing
her. “We
are
going to talk about this.”

He shut the door and stalked off toward
Mike.

“What in the hell, Parker McKenna,” she
whispered, “is going on with you.” And how dare you shush me with a
finger to my lips!

Inside she was steaming. This man. This sexy,
hunky, cowboy man! He was driving her insane.

She watched Parker stalk across the lot
toward Mike. They stood face to face and talked for a minute, then
Mike’s hands shot up in the air, and he stepped backward.

Parker danced about, his hands also
flailing.

His face was red, too. And his voice
louder.

Hell’s bells, they were arguing. Loudly!

Reba jumped out of the truck and started
toward the men. As she approached, she was a little dumbfounded as
she realized they truly were having a heated discussion.
Boys,
boys, boys… What in the world.

“You said you weren’t interested, Parker.
That it was casual. Just neighbors. That’s what you said.”

“Well, yeah, but I’m telling you I lied.
We’re not. So back off.”

“But I’m not sure Reba would agree with
you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve already asked her out.”

“You son of a bitch!”

“What the hell, Parker? You all but gave me a
green light!”

“Boys! Stop!”

Both men clammed up, their jaws tight.

“Enough!” Reba continued. She stepped between
them then, putting a flat palm on each man’s chest. She looked at
Mike. “Go back inside. I’ll call you later.” Then she turned to
Parker. “Get in the truck and take me home. Now.”

Neither man moved. Reba slowly angled her
gaze from one man to the other and then said, “I mean it.
Move.”

She dropped her hands and stomped off toward
the truck. She hoped to hell Parker was following her and Mike was
doing as told. Damned men. She hated when she had to treat them
like boys.

When she got to the truck, she reached for
the door handle with her bad arm and immediately regretted it. A
pain shot up her elbow, and she winced. So easy to forget she was
still injured without the splint. “Dammit!” But she quickly
recovered and got in. By the time she was in her seat, Parker was
behind her and shut the door. His glare caught hers through the
window and held for a heated moment.

Shit.
That sexy-as-hell stare turned
her on like nobody’s business.

****

Parker slammed his truck door. Before he
could say the words on the tip of his tongue—
Reba, let me
explain
—she lit into him.

“What was that all about?” She glared from
the other side of the truck cab.

Parker shoved his keys in the ignition and
looked at her. “A misunderstanding. That’s all. Mike and I will
talk later and smooth it out. We’ll be fine. Not the first time
we’ve argued.”

“It was about me.”

Parker swallowed. Her emerald eyes—the ones
that were sparking at him earlier—had turned cold and almost icy.
“Yes.”
How am I going to dig myself out of this?

“Tell me more.”

Shit.

“Parker?”

“All right.” He glanced to the console
between them. “I told Mike I didn’t want him to ask you out.” He
looked up then and leaned forward, closer to her. “Did he already
ask you out?”

She didn’t hesitate with her response.
“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“Do you want to know what I told him?”

He closed his eyes. “I’m not sure.”

“Parker…”

He jerked his gaze back up. “Yes, tell
me.”

“I told him I didn’t know. That I would have
to think about it.”

Both mentally and physically, Parker relaxed.
He didn’t take his eyes from hers. “Okay. Thank you for telling
me.”

She glared back. “A lot of good it’s going to
do though. You are such an ass. I’m really and truly exasperated
with you, Parker McKenna. I don’t know whether you are coming or
going, flirting with me or pushing me away. I have absolutely no
clue whether I am a pain in the ass to you or if you are attracted
to me as much as I am attracted to you.”

What?

Parker just looked at her.

“Well?”

“I’m attracted. To you. I…”

“You what?”

“I don’t want you to go out with Mike.”

Reba’s gaze narrowed. “I’d already decided I
wasn’t.”

“Good…” Parker exhaled, exhaustion settling
around his shoulders. “Reba, I—”

She interrupted. “Not now. Take me home. It’s
getting late. I need to get a prescription filled, and you said you
had errands to run.” She glanced at her watch. “We better move. We
can talk about this later.”

The last thing Parker wanted to do was end
this conversation, but Reba was right. He straightened then and
fell back into the driver’s seat. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and
twisted the key in the ignition.

Chapter Ten

Reba watched the Montana landscape out her
passenger-side window. The dirt road leading up to her cabin was
long and bumpy, about a ten-minute ride. Prior to turning off the
big road, she and Parker had managed idle chitchat and casual
conversation, but as soon as they turned onto Reba’s land, words
ceased.

The afternoon had been all business, with a
couple of tasks completed—the prescription picked up, and Parker
even had time to stop by the bank to sign some paperwork. The
distance between the incident in the parking lot and the time
Parker pulled into her lane was much needed, although the tension
between them still very much existed.

And that was the issue. Wasn’t it? Why was
the tension there at all, and where did it come from? Reba didn’t
think it was from her. It had always seemed to be coming from
Parker.

Frustration?

Anger?

Sexual?
Ah. Yes. Perhaps.

There had been the kisses and the sparks and
the magnetic appeal…

It was a sexual attraction. Wasn’t it?

It
was
. And he was fighting it.

Had she hit the nail on the head? Parker was
truly attracted to her, and he didn’t know what to do with it?
Somehow she had a hard time believing that. Parker McKenna was one
hot cowboy—she was pretty sure he knew what to do with a woman he
was attracted to.

Reba started to squirm a little in her seat.
I’ll think about that later.

With the vehicle parked in front of her
cabin, she turned to Parker. “Would you like to come in? I can get
you a drink. Maybe we can talk.”

He studied her for a minute and nodded. “I
would
like to hear the rest of the Reba Morris life
story.”

“Oh? Goodness…” She’d totally blocked that
night and conversation from her head. “Toward the end I think I
drifted and was pretty much babbling incoherently. I’m not sure
where I stopped off.”

Shaking his head, he said, “Not babbling. I
found it interesting. And you left off at the part where you were
about to get married.”

Reba swallowed. His wanting to hear more
about her life shifted her thinking a bit. But wasn’t that what
people did when they were getting to know each other—talk about
their life and their pasts?

True. But was she ready to tell Parker about
Jack? After all, they barely knew each other, and had he even had
time to deal with his own father’s passing? Death was a downer, and
she just didn’t want to bring Jack into this conversation—yet.
Maybe later. She’d only been a widow for six months, and both of
them were suffering a loss.

Where do you take all of that from there? She
didn’t know.

She lifted the latch on the truck door.
“Well, let’s go inside. Do you want coffee this late? I actually
have pie. Or I could rustle up a soda if you wanted something
cold.”

“Only if there is whiskey to go in it.”

She turned and smiled then. “Oh, I have
something much better than whiskey, Mr. McKenna. I don’t hail from
the land of fast horses, beautiful women, and fine bourbon for
nothing.”

Parker grinned and winked. “Bring it on,
woman.”

Reba mentally gave herself a quick shake,
along with an itty-bitty reality check. The wink was a good sign.
Maybe she’d get Parker to relax a bit and show a little of his true
self.

She threw the damned reality check to the
wind. Hell’s bells. She was going for it. That was one of her
goals, right? To live life?

Did she have a clue what she was about to get
herself into? And could she, for the most part, keep the emotion
out of it?

****

Parker followed Reba up the steps to her
cabin. He watched her hips sway as she ascended and smiled at the
swish of her flowing top as she moved. He waited, his palms itching
to reach out and grab her ass while she unlocked her front door.
Nervous tremors flittered up into his abdomen. Generally, he was
secure in a direction he wanted to take with a woman—especially one
he had strong feelings for—but at this moment, he was unsure where
this night would lead, or where he even wanted it to go.

Were they ready for more?

She stepped inside, and he followed.

Funny how he hadn’t remembered much about the
entrance to the cabin. Of course, every time he’d been there
recently was in the midst of crisis, and he wasn’t thinking about
wall decorations or window treatments. He’d been to the Crandall
cabin before, many times over the years, but it sure hadn’t looked
like it did now.

“Wow, Reba. The place looks incredible.
You’ve really done a lot of work here.”

She glanced about, smiling. “Thank you. I
love it. You know, it’s the first place I’ve ever owned that was
just mine. It’s an incredible feeling.”

He nodded. “I understand that.” He thought
about his own place, the big house, where he’d lived since he was
born. He hoped to live there for many years to come and sure didn’t
relish the thought of change coming to the ranch, and of him having
to give that up.

“Something wrong?”

Parker hadn’t realized he had stared off.
“No, I’m fine.”

“Good,” she said, heading down the hallway.
“Let me take this prescription to the kitchen and see what kind of
alcohol I can find to seduce you with.”

She whirled, wide-eyed, and looked at
him.

“Oops.” A hand clamped over her mouth. “Did I
say that out loud?”

Parker slowly moved toward her. “Yes, ma’am,
you did. And truth be told, I’m not so sure you are going to have
to ply me with alcohol to seduce me. That look on your face has
pretty much made me a goner.”

Her pretty green eyes grew even wider as he
finally put his hands on her waist, tugged her closer, and leaned
into her. “Do we really need the bourbon?”

She blinked. Twice. “No. Yes. Shit. No.
Yes.”